In the existing technology, direct current-to-direct current (DC/DC) converters, such as boost converters, measure a current of a boost inductor to control the boost converter current. For conventional multi-phase DC/DC converters, a controller thereof requires current information from each phase for control of the boost converter current. The ripple current of the DC input and the output filter capacitor may be decreased by increasing the number of the phases of the DC/DC converter. Therefore, increasing the number of phases reduces the size of the output filter capacitor required. Conventionally, however, a separate current sensor is provided for each boost inductor of a phase to provide the current information for each phase to the controller. Thus, the requirement of multiple current sensors for the multiple DC/DC boost converter phases cancels out any benefit from capacitor size reduction.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a method and apparatus for sensing the currents of each phase which reduces the number of current sensors without reducing the number of phases. In addition, it is desirable to provide a method and apparatus for DC/DC converter current measurement and control with a reduced number of current sensors. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.